Improved fan-blower



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

RANSOM COOK, OF SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEWT YORK.

IMPROVED FAN-BLOWER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,694, dated November 12, 1861.

To rcir/Z whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RANsoM Cook, of Saratoga Springs, in the county of Saratoga and State of New York, have invented a new and improved fan-blower for the purpose of furnishing a blast of air in cases where it may be desired; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, in which Figure lis an elevation of my apparatus as ready for use. A is the receiver, into which the blast from the fan-wheel is driven. It is composed of three parts connected together and marked on their edges 1 2 8, the center piece (marked 2) being much cut away, as shown in Fig. 3, No. 2, so as to allow a free passage of the blast from the large to the small end of the receiver. The shaft of the fan-wheel is shown marked 4. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the receiver, the arrows showing the direction taken by the blast when forced into it through the throathwhich is colored red. Fig. 3 shows the separate parts of the receiver, each numbered the same as in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 shows the fan-wheel in two conditions, the disks or plates of each being marked B. No. 1 is unfinished, showing the vanes as attached to the disk. No. 2 is iinished by securing the fiat ring D to the edges of the vanes. The vanes in each are marked E E. Fig. 5 is a view of the shape in which the vanes are bent, the straight part to be within the Wheel, the curved one to correspond with its periphery, the arrow near the straight line indicating the direction of the blast.

In constructing this apparatus the receiver may be made of any material that will answer the purpose intended. Itis not essential that the ferm as shown in Fig. 1 should be strictly followed; but it is essential that an annular 0r circular opening should be made in the receiver through which the air from the fanwheel is to be forced into it. The receiver should in all cases be so much larger than the fan-wheel in diameter that the air forced into it may not directly rebound, but pass toward the discharging end with but little friction.

The receiver may be made without a recess for the fan-wheel, the large end being entirely even, but having an annular throat or opening through which the blast is to be thrown into it. In that case, however, the disk of the wheel must at its periphery incline from the pulley on its shaft into the throat of the receiver, and the fiat ring D must have a similar inclination or bevel, so as to force the blast into the throat; butthis method is objectionable, as the blast in its efforts to pass through the spaces between the vanes'in a direct line of rotation encountersl considerable friction against the inner side of the fiat ring. I therefore find the method herein set forth to be decidedly preferable. It consists in forming a recess in the large end of the receiver of sufficient capacity to receive the entire fanwheel, the wheel being turned to fill the recess as nearly as possible without actual contact. Between those part-s of the receiver marked 1 and 2 a space is left, (colored red in Fig. 2,) which forms an annular throat or opening that entirely surrounds the fan-wheel. rl`his arrangement enables the fan to throw the blast directly into the receiver, when it passes, as indicated by the arrows, between the spokes of No. 2, Fig. 3, and is discharged at the small end of the receiver.

rlhe fan-Wheel, instead of having spokes to carry the vanes, I prefer with a disk or circular plate secured to the shaft near its inner end, so as to occupy the deeper part of the recess before mentioned. If the Wheel is small, a disk with an even face may answer,| but in general it should have one or more concentric corrugations, so as to secure firmness with a thin plate vof metal. The vanes being bent, as shown in Fig. 5, are to have one edge secured to that side of the disk which is next to the pulley, the curved end of the vane being made to correspond with the periphery of the disk and even With its surface. The straight part of the vane, instead of being set in a direct line from the periphery to the shaft, may be inclined some iifteen or twenty degrees from a radial line, the inner end pointing in the direction that the Wheel turns, and in use throwing olf the air from the side next to the arrow, Fig. 5. The curved ends of the vanes which continue along the periphery of the Wheel should be made to approach each other until the spaces between the vanes through which the air is to pass shall be smaller at their outward extremities than at their interior ones, where they receive the air in its natural state. This arrangement adds to the intensity of the blast and economizes the consumption of power. The vanes need not extend inwardly toward the center of the wheel more than from oneseventh to one-sixth of its diameter; but this should be varied according to the distance between them. The spaces between the vanes should be governed in a measure by the velocity which is to be given to the wheel, the space being largest when the velocity is to be greatest. The width of the vanes, and consequently the distance between the disk and the iiat ring D, determines the quantity of air which the fan-wheel can throw oft' per minute into the receiver, the throat of the receiver being made to correspond with the Width of the vanes.

lVhen in operation, this fan-wheel drives a continual stream ot air into the receiver from each vane in the wheel without incurring the loss of power as well as of the quali tity and intensity of the blast, which is suffered by ordinary fan-blowers when revolving within a case or shell containing compressed air, which can be forced into the conveying-pipe at only one aperture.

In using this fan the intensity of the blast will be found proportioned to the velocity oi' the wheel, which blowers having a circular opening in the center of their cases for the admission of air cannot give, because as soon hereinbefore described. f

RANSOM COOK. Witnesses:

SIMEON MILLIGAN, E. R. COOK. 

